Dinah, ClinkShrink, & Roy produce Shrink Rap: a blog by Psychiatrists for Psychiatrists. A place to talk; no one has to listen.
All patient vignettes are confabulated; the psychiatrists, however, are mostly real.
--Topics include psychotherapy, humor, depression, bipolar, anxiety, schizophrenia, medications, ethics, psychopharmacology, forensic and correctional psychiatry, psychology, mental health, chocolate, and emotional support ducks. Don't ask. (It's not Shrink Wrap.)

I have to say, I don't agree with number #10, simply because dress and jewelry are such subjective issues and one person's view of gaudy is another expression of individuality and I don't believe that on most things there would consensus among all the patients in a given therapist's practice as to whether their dress was appropriate or not. Therapists should be dressed professionally and comfortably (they should be concentrating on their patients, not their wedgy underwear) but the issue of 'inappropriate displays of wealth' is not a clear barrier. One could say, "I don't like that my shrink's diamond engagement ring is bigger than mine, so they shouldn't wear it." The shrink below wears so much jewelry as to clank? Most shrinks sit quietly during therapy, so clanking shouldn't be a big issue. I would probably agree if the issue were something like "My psychiatrist comes to treatment in just his Speedo." Here's #10 in the original.

10. Inappropriate displays of wealth or dress.

Psychotherapists are first and foremost professionals, and any displays of wealth and style should be discarded in exchange for dressing in an appropriate and modest style. A therapist slathered in expensive jewelry is a put-off to most clients, as are blouses or dresses that show too much skin or cleavage. Too casual of dress can also be a problem. Jeans may suggest too casual an approach to a professional service that the client is paying for.

And it seems I forgot PsychCentral from list of Shrinky Links. Please forgive me.

7
comments:

Anonymous
said...

I would not care if my shrink wore jeans (he does not) but if a shrink were trying to not have a display of wealth perhaps he/she WOULD wear jeans so the quote seems inconsistent. Some university professors wear jeans and still appear to be professional, though many of them really do NOT have wealth.

I think it would be hard to dress in a manner that would please all clients so a therapist must please him/herself. As a portrait photographer, I have often told my subjects to dress in a manner that will not be distracting when viewing the final photo. Clothing that does not distract the patient or intimidate the patient ought to have more importance than specifics of jewelry or style or cost. My psychiatrist once said he always wears shorts at home (and never in the office where he wears baggy cords). He's probably right because all that exposed skin might be a distraction, though the casual aspect of it would not bother me.

Just want to mention that the title did not mention psychiatrists, it said therapists. I do not begin to equate the two. In many states anyone can hang out a shingle to be a therapist; this grossly minimizes all of the time and effort and psychiatrist had put into her schooling and training.

I always found it weird (still do) that my shrink - who works mostly with young kids, and plays on the floor a lot - always wears a suit (no jacket) to work... I sometimes wonder what his dry cleaning bill must be.

We spend a lot of time in one of my social work class discussing dress. My prof, who also works with a lot of kids, has mentioned that he will adjust his wardrobe depending on his clients at times - if he's going to be seeing all teenagers on a particular day, he may put on jeans, a T and running shoes (you never know if you'll end up on a basketball court, I guess) vs. If he's going to be in an office he'll put on something a little more, I suppose, dressy?

And on the subject of twitter: I was twittering constantly - i find it useful when I'm out and I have something funny that I'd want to blog about... but the novelty seems to have worn off.

I have always liked Roy's posts and do not plan to twitter (probably ever). Could Roy or a ShrinkRapper consolidate his Twitters (Tweets?) that are relevant into blogs or is that too difficult considering the stream-of-consciousness aspect of Twittering?

Besides being a no-show for our scheduled appt last week, our reschedule last week, I had to sit through almost half an hour of him going on about his research involving rats and rat pups and various drugs and teratogenic properties of them, especially research grade (insert lab name of pot here). All because I offhand mention I had my period but it was late and I had thought I was pregnant for a minute there, and he goes oh? are you trying to? and I say no but we might at some point . . . . all of which he already KNEW and we already had DISCUSSED general ideas about backing off certain classes of drugs and not on others etc. should we ever become pregnant (hubby and I, just to clear that up lol).

Anyway, geez he went on and on about grad school and rats and rat pups and various experiments at various stages of their development and it was SOooooooo booorinnnngggg . .. .

Eventually, because my husband had to go to work, I started fishing through my medicines, to check which ones were low, which needed refills, etc. and did not look at him for at least several minutes straight as he continued; he got the point, and we proceeded w/business.

I mean, wth? WASTE of time. He does ramble though, from time to time. Ah, well, so do I, but more on the net that at his office rofl.